A semiconductor wafer may be attached to a temporary wafer carrier to support the semiconductor wafer during processing. The wafer carrier reduces or eliminates bowing of the semiconductor wafer during processing, enables thinning of the semiconductor wafer and other backside processes, and simplifies handling of the semiconductor wafer, particularly for ultrathin wafers. Once processing of the semiconductor wafer is complete, the wafer carrier is removed. In other processes, the wafer carrier is not removed and becomes a part of the final semiconductor devices fabricated from the semiconductor wafer. Typically, a temporary adhesive layer is used to attach the semiconductor wafer to the wafer carrier. The temporary adhesive layer, however, is temperature sensitive. For example, a typical temporary adhesive layer has a processing limit of two hours at 250° C. Therefore, the processes that follow the bonding of the semiconductor wafer to the wafer carrier are adjusted to stay within the temperature limits of the adhesive layer. The adjusted processes have substantial limitations with regard to quality, yield, performance, and productivity.
For these and other reasons, there is a need for the present invention.